Senatorial Presidents

Regardless of who wins in November, we will have a former Senator serving as President of the US.

Is that a good thing? Probably not.

FDR had been a governor, but Truman was a sort of accidental Senator. Chosen by Boss Pendergast's Kansas City machine, Truman ultimately contributed to putting his old patron in prison. Now hailed as a great Democratic president, Truman wasn't accorded any accolades for a good fifteen years after leaving office.

Kennedy, Nixon and Johnson were all Senators, after being elected as Representatives to Congress. None was particularly competent with domestic issues, although Kennedy's tax cuts helped get the economy moving after the late-Eisenhower inflation.

Ford was only a Representative, and a short-timer, as Presidents go.

Carter, though a governor, was woefully inept and unprepared for national-level politics and government. As a recent Wall Street Journal editorial reminded us of a prior one, from the Clinton era,

'so we are once more introduced to an unknown Democratic governor.'

Carter....Dukakis.....Clinton. All lesser-known governors upon their nomination for presidential candidate in the Democratic party.

Reagan was, of course, a successful governor of California, and went on to be one of the country's greatest Presidents, defeating the Soviet Union and communism before leaving office.

George H. Bush was a US Representative and executive in numerous governmental agencies, as well as having had a successful private career in the oil industry.

His son, of course, defeated two Senators- Gore and Kerry- for the White House.

Of all the Presidents since FDR, I think it's safe to say that Johnson, Nixon and Kennedy either performed the worst, or had little impact, of any of the office holders.

Kennedy kicked off Vietnam, while Johnson mismanaged the war and the economy. Nixon, though a Republican, introduced the only wage and price controls the US has ever had outside of wartime.

Of the Senators, only Truman could be viewed as reasonably effective over the long term. His Four Point program defeated communism in Europe, while he aggressively fought communist aggression in Korea. But Truman was much less of a professional politician than the other three Senators who recently served as President.

Traditionally, in the modern era, Senators have largely been empty windbags with little or no prior managerial experience. Gore, Kerry, Obama, Biden and McCain are no exceptions.

Thus, no matter who wins, we shouldn't expect a great deal of competent domestic economic management. Rather, it's clearly more of a contest of values and principles.

McCain's are pretty clear. Obama has none.

But on the subject of competence in governing, sadly, Americans are almost certainly in for four years of its absence.

Romney, Giuliani, and perhaps even Richardson could have delivered this. But they were all, ultimately, unelectable.

Between the prospect of a spendthrift, runaway Democratically-controlled Congress and either of two administratively inexperienced Presidential candidates, the American voting public had better buckle their seatbelts for a rough economic four years.